Bank and ditch

Preliminary

This is a provisional report about a future proposition for specific tags for the following types of banks and ditches:

• bank and ditch barrier
• hedge and ditch barrier
• fossé bordier
• talus
• old way (e.g. Tiense Groef)

About bank and ditch



Bank and ditch or hedge and ditch are man made earthworks in the landscape. All have a historic interest as being the landmark for present and past administrative boundaries. They were used to limit lands, parish, communes, forests, etc.

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I’m raising funds to purchase the historic 1:50,000 topographic map series of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), so I can preserve and share them online as a seamless, zoomable mosaic - free for everyone.

In 2008 I successfully raised £1000 to acquire the equivalent series for Namibia (South West Africa). You can explore that project here: https://namibia-topo.openstreetmap.org.za/

Donate and more information: https://www.gofundme.com/f/purchase-historical-eswatini-topographic-maps

This is the story of how the cycling association measured streets in Bruges and got what they wanted - a cycling zone - 5 years after the initial campaign…

The setup

First some belgian road law. One of the peculariaties of Belgian is that we have the concept of a ‘cyclestreet’. This is a street where cars are not allowed to overtake cyclists - one of the tools to make cities more liveable. A cycle zone is similar, except that it is about multiple streets. It needs different traffic signs and is in effect until the “end of cycle zone”-traffic sign.

The cycling association of Bruges wanted a cycling zone in the entire city center. To force this, they devised a plan using a different law. The Belgian road code says that cars are not allowed to overtake a cyclist if the space between a cyclist and the car would be less then 1 meter.

In other words, if the cycling association could prove that most of the streets in Bruges are too small to legally overtake cyclists anyway, that would be a good starting point to force a cycle zone in the city. In practice, it would make the already existing situation more explicit.

Enter OpenStreetMap

As such, the local cyclist association asked me to help them in 2020, in the middle of the corona lockdowns.

I did create a custom version of StreetComplete to ask for the street width (a quest that StreetComplete would officially add about a year later).

And, as such, we got out into the city and, armed with a laser measurement device, took the width of every street in the historic center - a perfect activity to do during the corona lockdowns.

To display the information, I setup a custom map theme on MapComplete (which was quite young as well) to show the widths of the streets.

Using the measured width, parking and sidewalk information, MapComplete can automatically determine which streets are to small to officially overtake a cyclist.

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When I was using JOSM tonight, the satellite imagery shown on my screen reminded me of something.

It reminded me of a simulation game I loved playing several years ago : SimCity 4.

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My morning walks got replaced by Car driving lessons.

I turn on my GPS and go for driving and after returning I upload the traces to OSM.

I am wondering other than uploading the GPS traces, is there any other way I can utilize my local knowledge to contribute to OSM.

I’m honored to begin my journey as a 2025 Fellow with the Open Mapping Advocacy Network (OMAN) under the HOT Open Mapping Hub – West and Northern Africa (WNAH). Over the years, I have actively contributed to the open mapping ecosystem through OpenStreetMap Sierra Leone and YouthMappers, as a 2023 YouthMappers Leadership Summit Fellow and 2023–2024 YouthMappers Regional Ambassador for West Africa and a Trainer, OSM Sierra Leone. These experiences have shaped my passion for leveraging geospatial technology as a tool for sustainable development, data-driven decision-making, and youth empowerment.

I applied to join the OMA Fellowship because I deeply believe in the transformative power of open data and participatory mapping to promote inclusion, community actions, and resilience. The OMAN Learning Initiative provides a meaningful opportunity to expand my skills in course design, open mapping advocacy, and community engagement, while collaborating with my co-fellow to co-create impactful learning resources that empower local mappers and communities across West Africa. Together with my co-fellow Jimerveille Thierry-Ngouama, we’ll be co-developing the course “Open Mapping for City Management and Planning.” This learning initiative explores vital and practical themes such as: -Open Data for Sustainable Cities -Informal Settlement Mapping -Disaster Preparedness and Resilience -Disability Assessment and Accessibility Mapping -Revenue Generation and Urban Innovation These themes strongly resonate with challenges faced across West African cities, where limited access to reliable geospatial data often hinders effective governance and urban development. Open mapping offers a powerful and practical pathway to strengthen urban planning, disaster risk management, and inclusive infrastructure design ensuring that no community is left behind.

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About me

A geospatial tools and technologies enthusiast from the Republic of Congo. First, a chapter’s Vice-President of YouthMappers de l’Université DENIS SASSOU-N’GUESSO, before serving as a Technical YouthMappers Regional Ambassador. Now, more than pleased to shape the future of Open Mapping within the North and West African region as a Content and Community Engagement Fellow at the HOT WNA Open Mapping Hub.

How did I end up here?

Having witnessed the power of Open Mapping, I am dedicated to raising awareness around it and its related tools and technologies. So, when I heard about the Open Mapping Advocacy Network (OMAN) Learning Initiative, I felt excited to dive into it. More interestingly, the selection process to become a fellow in this program was one of the best experiences I have had. Indeed, no interview for shortlisted, the selection team directly provides us task to complete, linked to what is expected of us and what we are supposed to be doing once selected. This process taught me a great deal about situational thinking and problem-solving.

According to my view, why is open mapping so important?

Open mapping is neither just about freely available online maps for getting from place A to B nor collaborative mapping projects anyone can join. It’s really about democratizing locational knowledge for facilitating decision making, helping problem solving, and supporting one’s geographic experience. The reason why the course under development is titled “Open mapping for sustainable cities” and will be subdivided into five (05) modules, emphasizing an introduction and four (04) mapping thematic as follows: informal settlements, disaster management, disability assessments, and revenue generation.

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A propos de moi

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this is just a little page for me to keep some of my Ultra experiments, will write more when time allows

FPAS replica map with custom colours for MetService

A few days ago I found what appears to be a criminaly underviewed video (currently with 81 views) about imagery interpretation. I almost cannot believe I hadn’t seen it up untill now. It’s breif, contains many of the points I’d write to others about, and there’s next to nothing which I dissagree with. A wonderful addition to my feedback toolbelt.

I want to give this video a signal boost in all relevant mapping channels, since it’s a fantastic resource which can help contributors improve their imagery interpretation. An Introduction to Aerial Imagery for New Mappers

The video is titled for beginers, but the fundamentals don’t change; check it out!

If you are like me, you like things fast. Hobbits aren’t know for this, but we Mappins a little different you know…. more to come.

Dear Bilbo,

What a calamity! Just this morning, I attempted to properly document Sandyman’s Mill in OpenStreetMap—you know, the watermill where they grind all the Shire’s grain—and I discovered to my absolute horror that OSM has no proper tagging schema for Shire watermills! Oh, they have man_made=watermill for those dreadfully generic watermills elsewhere in Middle-earth, but nothing that captures the essential hobbitish details: the number of grinding stones, the undershot versus overshot wheel configuration, or most importantly, the weekly flour production capacity (measured in seed-cake equivalents, naturally). I sat there at my mapping desk, GPS coordinates at the ready (SY 1234 5678, if you must know), completely flummoxed—rather like the time Bilbo tried to explain his Elvish poetry to the Gaffer. Looks up with determined gleam in eye

I realize I must take matters into my own furry-footed hands! If the wider OpenStreetMap community hasn’t created proper specifications for Shire watermills, then by the Green Dragon’s best ale, I shall create them myself.

“By Elbereth! A proper preset definition for hobbit watermills!” I exclaimed, nearly spilling my tea over the JSON structure before me. This beautifully formatted file would let any mapper document our mills properly—but first, I needed Sam’s expertise to determine which fields truly mattered. Next: I rush to Bag Shot Row, waving my GPS device at a bewildered Sam in his garden!

This is the json object that same and I came up with.

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Mapped a new bit of The Meadoway this morning. It’s not quite open yet so there are construction gates (TIL they’re called barrier=hampshire_gate). I will have to remember to remove them when the trail opens (December, they say).

As this is likely to be one of the very few ways with road_marking:colour=blue, I want to show people that it really does: (or if that didn’t work: →).

I really should add a relation for The Meadoway, but I use iD and relation editing happens for other people. This new path should probably be part of the Gatineau Corridor Recreational Trail and Trans Canada Trail - Toronto relations, but probably shouldn’t be part of the Pan Am Path relation since this was built more than a decade after the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games.

GPS Trace: 2025_10_21_07_47_571.gpx

Changeset: 173584061

We (Teritorio.fr) publish an approach and an implementation of a strategy to reconstruct OpenStreetMap object history at a semantic et geospatial level, beyond the technical object history.

It should help to review the OpenStreetMap changes. It supports geometrical and also semantical OSM object spiting or semantic concept moved from one objet to an other.

A demo is available online https://teritorio.github.io/openstreetmap-logical-history-component/

And the the code is open source : https://github.com/teritorio/openstreetmap-logical-history

The full story on

• Github https://github.com/teritorio/openstreetmap-logical-history/blob/master/doc/OSM-Logical-History-From-technical-diffs-to-reconstructed-semantic-object-history.md
• the same, on Medium https://medium.com/@frederic.rodrigo/osm-logical-history-from-technical-diffs-to-reconstructed-semantic-object-history-eea089a6d72e

When processing places of worship for the National Crisis Center (Belgium), I run into the problem that it’s quite hard to filter just “significant” places of worship from OSM. We’re interested in places where it’s likely that regular services take place, or that get regular crowds (e.g. weddings & funerals). But it’s hard to remove all the little wayside crosses or chapels that are just not relevant because their tagging is too limited.

uMap with all the places of worship that could not be classified

To do so, we start from all places with amenity=place_of_worship. For our search area (Belgium + areas we have projects in + a buffer), that give us about 45.000 locations.

My initial strategy was to then exclude “obviously small places”. There’s three tags we can use for that:

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Some people are confused about neis-one “Type?” badge below “Discussed changesets” section. So what It’s actualy mean?

There are simple and easy criteria for both secions. First one how many changesets user have and secound is how many mapping days contributor have collected.

Chngesets (left section)

• Fewer than 25: Hit-and-Run
• 25 to 99: Newbie
• 100 to 1,499: Casual Mapper
• 1,500 to 2,999: Great Mapper
• 3,000 to 5,999: Heavy Mapper
• 6,000 to 9,999: Super Mapper
• 10,000 to 14,999: Legendary Mapper
• 15,000 to 59,999: Fantastic Mapper
• 60,000 to 99,999: Mega Mapper
• 100,000 or more: Epic Mapper

Activity categories by number of active days:

• Fewer than 15: Rarely Active
• 15 to 39: Regularly Active
• 40 to 79: Active
• 80 to 169: Very Active
• 170 to 269: Highly Active
• 270 or more: Mega Active

I had the incredible opportunity to represent Vriddhi Project – UNOPS Sri Lanka at the State of the Map 2025 Conference, where I presented a talk on “Mapping for Impact: Introducing Open Mapping to Civil Society in Sri Lanka.”

During this session, I shared how Vriddhi Project empowers civil society organizations (CSOs) across Sri Lanka to harness data and geospatial technologies for better advocacy, planning, and community engagement. Civil society often faces challenges in visualizing, analyzing, and applying data effectively. Geospatial tools allow CSOs to map resources, identify gaps, track progress, and communicate evidence-based solutions, amplifying their impact at the grassroots level.

The session resonated strongly with the audience because it highlighted real-life applications, measurable results, and the transformative power of open mapping. Participants were inspired to see how geospatial tools can turn abstract data into actionable insights that drive social change.

Thanks to State Of The Map and Open Mapping Hub - Asia Pacific for creating opportunities

I had the incredible opportunity to represent Vriddhi Project – UNOPS Sri Lanka at the State of the Map 2025, held in Manila, Philippines from October 3rd to 5th, 2025.

As part of this global gathering of open mapping enthusiasts, I conducted a hands-on workshop titled “Getting Started with QGIS: Beginner’s Guide to Mapping with Open Source Tools.” The session introduced participants to the exciting world of open geospatial technology and its potential to create positive impact at community level.

During the workshop, we explored: - OpenStreetMap (OSM) and the HOT Tasking Manager for collaborative and humanitarian mapping. - Open data sources such as Planet OSM, Geofabrik, BBBike, and Overpass Turbo. - How to select the right data type, perform data cleaning, and integrate datasets into QGIS effectively. - Practical mapping exercises that turned open data into meaningful stories and insights.

The energy in the room was inspiring — participants from different backgrounds came together to learn, question, and create. The conversations around open data, inclusivity, and sustainable development reaffirmed my belief that maps are more than visuals — they’re bridges that connect people, places, and purpose.

Heartfelt thanks to the State Of The Map 2025 organizers, Open Mapping Hub - Asia Pacific and the passionate mapping community for this enriching experience!

I’m writing my first OSM Diary entry in hopes that some local Thunder Bay, ON or Northwestern Ontario mapper(s) will find me here. When I look at the dashboard, I don’t see any local mappers that have edited during the past several years, and no local mappers that have made a single diary entry. If you do stumble across this post, I want you to know that you are not alone trying to improve OSM in Thunder Bay.

• Please feel free to reach out to me here.
• You can find my blog at Corvus Spatial.
• Contact me on Mastodon.
• I’ve also started a rudimentary list of tags and instructions I have gleaned while attempting to follow Open Sidewalks as I’m mapping sidewalks.

As the title suggests this post was precipitated by achieving one of the New Year’s resolutions I made late last December, 2024. At the time I noted that I had only made 42 edits over the ~13 years I had been signed up with OSM and tasked myself with at least doubling this. As of today, 2025-10-19, I have made exactly 84 edits that have included over 1500 individual changes to the map this past year so far. This is small potatoes compared to people that are really active editors, but I just recently started ramping up my edits in the past several weeks as I have gained confidence mapping sidewalks and crossings following a protocol that is designed to be helpful for network modelling for diverse map users.

I have some ideas to get more people contributing to OSM in Northwestern Ontario, including some mapathons and other social events. I hope to meet you soon, in-person or on the interwebs.

Bali, Indonesia’s “Island of the Gods,” is celebrated for its natural beauty and spiritual heritage, yet faces a complex array of disaster risks shaped by tectonic activity, climate variability, and human development. Located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the island is prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides, and tsunamis. Mount Agung, a sacred stratovolcano in Karangasem, exemplifies this duality revered by Balinese Hindus and feared for its deadly eruptions, including the catastrophic event in 1963 and its reawakening in 2017. In Karangasem, disaster risk reduction has progressed through a fusion of local leadership and geospatial innovation. Participatory mapping, drone surveys, and open data platforms now support early warning systems and contingency planning. Community-based programs such as Desa Tangguh Bencana and the Centre of Excellence initiative empower residents to map hazards, design evacuation routes, and conduct preparedness drills.

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The vector tiles here have always had names in “the local language”, so Welsh-speaking parts of Wales have Welsh names shown and English-speaking parts English names:

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